metrizing a topology

I was finally able to find this on PlanetMath, (Source taken from this website below).
A topological space is said to be metrizable if there is a metric such that the topology induced by is .
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This is what bothers me,induced as in graph theory.
By the problem is that the topology can contain more than two element subsets of in that case, how can we view as a graph!
Furthermore, then for certainly the topology on does not contain two element subsets. That means that is not a graph and the entire concept of makes no sense.
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Forgive, me for not answersing your question. It just bothered me too.

I was finally able to find this on PlanetMath, (Source taken from this website below).
A topological space is said to be metrizable if there is a metric such that the topology induced by is .
---
This is what bothers me,induced as in graph theory.
By the problem is that the topology can contain more than two element subsets of in that case, how can we view as a graph!
Furthermore, then for certainly the topology on does not contain two element subsets. That means that is not a graph and the entire concept of makes no sense.
---
Forgive, me for not answersing your question. It just bothered me too.

The link for "induced" in the PlanetMath definition is in error. You're right that graph theory has nothing to do with it.

Here's a definition of induced topology from Topology by James Dugundji.

Let Y be a set and d be a metric in Y. The topology T(d), having for basis the family { Bd(y,r) | y in Y, r > 0 } of all d-balls in Y, is called the topology in Y induced (or determined) by the metric d.

Metric spaces are easier to work with than general topological spaces. One important instance of this is that in metric spaces one can work with sequences.

For example, the definition of continuity of a function that we learned in calculus

is continuous if implies

uses sequences. It applies when is a metric space but not a general topological space. But try teaching the general definition of continuity--the inverse image of an open set is open--to a first-year calculus student.

There are many theorems that apply to metric spaces but not general topological spaces. Thus it is important to know when a topology is metrizable so those theorems apply.

I have a book on probability measures on metric spaces. What matters there is that the topological spaces are metrizable, not the particular metric used.